Jobs Up, Unemployment Rate Up Slightly

Employers added 163,000 new jobs in July, the best month since February. Unemployment is up a tenth of a point, but not really. It’s really up .37 of a point, which is statistically insignificant. Here’s why, explains Alan Kreuger, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, who “dismissed the notion that the uptick in unemployment was a sign of economic demise, pointing out that the number was rounded up from 8.254 percent (in June, the number was rounded down from 8.217 percent, meaning that the statistical differential between the two is .037 percent) and citing BLS Commissioner John Galvin as calling the figure ‘essentially unchanged’ from June to July.”